The key to healthy living is a combination of numerous dos and don’ts. What you eat, the time when you eat and even how you eat are important aspects of living healthy. You might never have paid attention to chewing your food, but believe it or not, it can actually reduce your calorie intake! Lifestyle coach Luke Coutinho says that chewing food properly can have a huge impact on digestion, gut health, immunity, weight and nutritional deficiencies. “Chewing is one of the most underrated habits, however, it has a massive impact on our health,” he says.

He goes on to explain how most of us think that are digestion begins in the gut. However, the truth is that the very first step of digestion takes place in the mouth itself. “When we chew, we allow our saliva to mix with food. This is crucial because our saliva is rich in digestive enzymes, particularly the ones responsible for digesting fats and carbohydrates. Chewing also breaks down food into smaller chunks thereby taking off the load from your stomach. It creates a feeling of satiety because by chewing, you are also doing mindful eating,” explains Luke.

What’s more is that when you chew every bite of your food properly, you are likely to get more satisfaction from your meals. Chewing food properly is one of the first essential steps for proper digestion of food. Chewing food can help you swallow food easily. When you chew food multiple times in your mouth, it leaves food small enough for the gastric juices in stomach to further break it down to microscopic size.

Chewing food properly is an important part of living healthyPhoto Credit: iStock

More benefits of chewing food properly

1. When you focus on chewing food, you are going to concentrate on what you’re eating. It will help you enjoy the aroma of food and eat food slowly. Eating food is going to be a much more pleasurable experience in this case.

2. Chewing food will make the food be in contact with your taste buds for longer. This can help boost feeling of fullness and satisfaction, reports WebMd.

3. The process of chewing food properly is a part of mindful eating. It is a practice which can reduce the amount food you eat in any meal. Mindful eating involves eating food without any distraction like television, book or newspaper. All these practices can make you overeat unconsciously.

If you are a fast-paced eater, this is one of the first lifestyle change you should adopt, recommends Luke. No matter how busy you are, it is one of the most basic habits for good health, especially gut health – which, according to him, is everything when it comes to prevention and healing.